If you are an avid viewer of Ghost Adventures and Most Haunted then it would be fair to assume that paranormal investigating is full of frights and jumps every night. If you also watch these shows you would also think that we get scratched and catch full body apparitions on camera on a regular basis. However, you would be wrong. These shows are created for entertainment purposes and to give the viewer a cheap scare. Not saying I don’t, love these shows, cause I do, but I am now fully aware that a lot of hours of filming go into one 45 minute long show.

When I first started doing investigations I was pretty scared, I’m not gonna lie. I expected spirits to whisper in my ear, to be pushed, scratched and intimidated. Maybe I haven’t been to the right places yet, but so far I haven’t experienced this. What I have experienced can’t be explained. What I have experienced is so subtle that a camera crew would not be able to capture it. Spirit does not have to be aggressive and obvious to be noticed. When you walk into a building and you suddenly cannot breath as the air and atmosphere is thick, how would a TV show convey this? When your heart starts pounding because you feel yourself being stared down by someone or something you cannot see, how would a TV show convey this? The majority of interaction with spirits can not be seen, only felt.

One thing we always mention to our guests at the beginning of investigations is that sometimes we might not get any communication at all. That is OK. Spirits are not performing monkeys, hanging out in buildings waiting for our beck and call. One thing that genuine paranormal groups will never do is fake evidence. We would rather the guests go away and think the night was ‘boring’ that make accusations that a group is faking activity. Paranormal groups strive off of their reputations and a cheap thrill will never come before integrity. So if your night with a local paranormal group DIDN’T seem like an episode of Most Haunted then I would say stick with that group, as sooner or later you never know what you might encounter, at least you know it wasn’t faked.

The paranormal industry is becoming saturated with people trying to get their five minutes of fame by releasing a video full of cheap jumps and obvious scare tactics that genuine videos of subtle paranormal evidence are getting overlooked. I have realised that something doesn’t have to jump out at you to show you it is there, if a spirit can communicate through a flickering light or by changing the atmosphere in the room then I am satisfied with the investigation.

My non-believer friend Gareth and i were having a very respectful debate the other day about ghosts and the paranormal, he stated that he puts the paranormal in the same bracket as religion, i disagreed with his belief but i respected it. I told him how i felt, that there is too much unexplained activity in the world to completely disregard the paranormal, and he respected my opinions.

One point that Gareth stated, which has stuck with me for the past few days, is that there are never any ‘Ghosts wearing a tracksuit’ or ‘Fat ghost in Louboutin shoes’. What he was getting at was, why is there never any modern ghost sightings, why is it always the cliched ‘woman in a white dress from the Victorian era’ sighting? Is this another example of mass hysteria, do people jump to conclusions when they start to believe their home is haunted so their eyes start playing tricks on them? It brings into question the legitimacy of lots of ghost sightings, which are genuine and which are fake will always be a cause for debate.

It is a shame that so many people desperate for Youtube hits will create fake ghost videos, this just makes it harder for genuine videos to get the recognition they deserve. I am not being skeptical i am just being aware and conscious of why non-believers feel the way they do. I feel that i should do my very best to try to get great evidence and solid proof so that even the non-believers cant explain it….

My Ghost story happened in 2002 when my daughter Shannon was 3 years old. She was in the living room on her own playing, while me and my mom were in a different room, there was only us in the house.

We faintly heard Shannon talking to someone in the other room, i thought she must be talking to the TV, but when we checked it was off. She was sat on the sofa and her dolls were scattered on the floor so i asked who she was talking to and she said ‘lady in nanny chair’. I told her there was no one there and she said ‘yes mommy lady nanny chair with white hair’.

I didn’t think anything of it till I got some photos out the next day of my Nan and Granddad and Shannon pointed to my Nan and said ‘me talk that lady nanny chair’.